Growth and sustainability seem to be the goals for all corporations. However, in the reality, only small number of corporations can sustain and keep growing; most corporations belong to one-shoot success or just stay stagnantly. Therefore, this study tried to figure out what is the main factor to make some corporations grow and the others decay. This study is based on an assumption that the main factor of corporation success depends on the alignment of corporate policies. If managers neglect the interactions of policies, it is possible to cause crises within the corporation and even make the corporation fall into decay. Only well-aligned policies can make corporations grow prosperously. Hence, policy design plays an important role to achieve the alignment. While going through the literatures on this subject, the domestic literatures are quit few. Therefore, this study has not only reviewed the relevant literatures, but also taken a domestic corporation as a studying case. This study used ¡§Systems Thinking¡¨ as a research tool to testify to the importance of dynamically aligned principles of the corporate policy design, and found the following conclusions: 1.Good intentions of the founder will lead to good corporation design, and the well-designed structure raises the intended behavior of employees. 2.Corporations have to design the policy base on long-term perspectives, and also develop the endurance to tolerate time delay. 3.Corporations should view the dynamically alignment of all policies as a whole and look for global optimization. 4.Well-designed policies will bring out the best operation performance.

The choice of policy design has crucial implications for a policy’s efficiency. Plastic as a material is an important issue because of its fossil origin and because it often ends up as litter and spreads microplastics. Consequently, policies regarding plastic are vital to examine to understand how we can reduce the environmental consequences of plastic. This study has examined the design of the plastic carrier bag policy and especially focused on the choice of policy instrument, the actors involved, and if the desired change in behaviour occurred. By utilising Schneider and Ingram’s policy design theory, and Howlett and Vedung’s works on policy design and policy instruments, the study built an analytical framework to examine the plastic carrier bag policy. The result showed that the design of a policy was largely dependent on who governed, reflecting the government’s political culture, aims, and goals. The outcome of the policy showed that tax as an economic instrument was efficient in changing the public’s behaviour in the use of plastic carrier bags.

This thesis examines the concept of political risk. It explores how political actors determine whether something is politically risky and what implications this judgment holds for policy design. It establishes that calculations of political risk are a day-to-day occurrence in political life, that they uniquely and influentially structure the public policy process, and that political risk analysis is a valid and distinct conceptual framework. Surveying an extensive multidisciplinary literature, the thesis clarifies its definition of political risk and identifies a gap in the existing political science literature concerning the concept. It exposes a hiatus between the political science discipline and political practice in the recognition of political risk calculation as a central aspect of political judgment. Because the theory of political risk is underdeveloped in political science, the thesis pieces together the existing wisdom from other disciplines that might inform a definition of political risk. It then plots a set of hypotheses to assist in constructing a foundational appreciation of what political risk calculation might entail. The thesis tests the resulting hypotheses using empirical research. A survey of 111 Australian political actors is conducted in order to determine how political risk is understood and operationalised in political practice and to ascertain the consequences of political risk for decision making and policy design. Survey results are complemented by a comparative analysis of four policy issues. The case studies selected were the Citizen's Charter and Mad Cow crisis of the British Major Government and the Charter of Social and Fiscal Responsibility and Smart State policies initiated by the Queensland Beattie Government. The comparative analysis of these cases is designed to add rigour to the interview data. It also provides additional information concerning the policy design implications of political risk calculation by relating interview findings to substantive policy problems. Together, this multi-method research demonstrates that political risk provides a fresh analytical perspective on public policy. Political risk analysis describes a unique aspect of political reality and explains in new ways the decision making process underpinning policy design. Political risk analysis also defends political action against claims of irrationality and attacks that suggest that politics is based on sheer cynicism, because it shows that political risk calculation boasts a defensible logic of its own. In fact, the thesis concludes that political risk provides a conceptual tool that begins to unravel some of the 'mystery' of politics that confounds technocratic models of policy analysis. Awareness of political risk calculation re-establishes political decision making as an endeavour where investigation must proceed with an appreciation of the integrated nature of human judgment that utilises both 'rational' and 'extra-rational' capacities to confront uncertainty.

Studies in the past few years have found that California has the highest recidivism rate in the nation. Until just a few decades ago, many did not believe that the rate of recidivism could be decreased for Robert Martinson’s 1974 study stated that “nothing worked” when trying to rehabilitate criminals. However, a renewed interest has proven that criminals can be rehabilitated. Thus, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), as well as various independent researchers have begun to study the effects of programming on inmates. This thesis evaluates various California in-prison and parole programs in order to determine if recidivism can be reduced, and if it can, how? Researching a CDCR study, as well as other independent studies, it can be concluded that California can reduce its recidivism rates and that there are various principles that will help to accomplish this. However, while various evaluated programs proved successful one cannot accurately determine how successful the programs are at reducing recidivism due to the problem posed by the selection effect. Therefore, while recidivism can be reduced and it appears that specific programs and principles will prove valuable in accomplishing this goal, more research should be conducted in order to determine whether the programs are successful or whether the success is due to the inmates enrolled.

This paper presents a model transformation between System Dynamics Model (SDM) and Artificial Neural Network (ANN) to aid model construction and policy design. We first point out a similarity between a System Dynamics Model (SDM) and an artificial neural network, in which both store knowledge majorly in the structure (or linkages) of a model. Then, we design a method that can map a SDM to a special design Partial Recurrent Network (PRN), and prove in mathematics that they two operate under the same numerical propagation constraints. With the established foundation, we then showed that the SDM-PRN transformation could aid SDM construction in the following way: (1) start from an initial skeleton of a PRN model (mapping from an initial SDM), (2) incarnate its structure by learning and (3) convert it back to a corresponding SDM. This approach integrates the capability of neural network learning with a traditional process, which thus makes model construction more systematic and much easier for common people. In the same philosophy, the SDM-PRN transformation could also aid SD policy design. Since any PRN can learn some structures from a historical time series pattern, it can also learn a better structure from a better pattern set by designer. We have investigated the effectiveness and usefulness of two application of the SDM-PRN transformation described above and the results are satisfactory.

Districts have been under increasing pressure to use research in decision making for over thirty years. Because the process of finding, interpreting, and using data is so complex, districts sometimes turn to outside partners for support. Research-practice partnerships (RPPs), formal arrangements between school districts and researchers, have been seen as a promising strategy for improving district use of research since the formation of the Chicago Consortium on School Research thirty years ago. Much attention has been paid to the challenges facing these partnerships, such as a lack of trust between partners, and to conditions that support RPP success. Less is known, however, about how these partnerships are influenced by the contexts in which they are situated. The theory of institutional logics draws attention to the way in which key stakeholders in the environment of one research alliance, the District Research Consortium (DRC), gradually shifted their definition of effectiveness and legitimacy and in doing so placed demands on the organization that surpassed its capabilities. The DRC was created in an environment with a single, strongly prevalent “institutional logic,” that valued traditional forms of research and conventional roles for researchers. Major partners across the environment viewed the organization as legitimate so long as the prevailing logic, one that prioritized the types of work the DRC was created to do, remained the same. As the predominant logic shifted, the DRC faced increasing challenges and struggled to meet the stakeholders’ changing demands. Eventually this pressure forced DRC to undertake a significant restructuring process. The institutional environment, thus, plays a crucial role in both shaping the design of research alliances and determining their success. Differing expectations across the environment may call for such significantly different structures, practices, and expertise that a single organization will find it challenging to meet the demands placed on it, and attempts to do so will likely strain research organizations’ capacity and limited resources. Additionally, an organization that is well suited to one set of expectations may not be able to pivot to provide different support when those expectations change. As the institutional logics present in an environment change, a partnership once viewed as valuable may face challenges to its legitimacy and even threats to its ongoing existence. Funders, policy makers, and education leaders need to consider the variety of roles that research partners can play in the overall education sector, and the type of research organizations best suited to these variable roles.

Educational ministries have sought to address the increasing obesity rates across the world and promote optimal childhood health, growth, and intellectual development, by implementing school nutrition policies. In 2011, the Government of Ontario (Ministry of Education) implemented in an initiative: the School Food and Beverage Policy (P/PM 150). Although P/PM 150 is well intentioned, there remains a gap between what this policy states and the way in which it is being executed - resulting in unplanned and unexpected outcomes. To examine this divide and have another perspective on P/PM 150's execution, the following research question was addressed: How is Ontario's School Food and Beverage Policy (P/PM 150) being implemented in secondary schools by school boards and the Ministry of Education? This qualitative case study therefore explores the implementation of P/PM 150 from the perspective of school board supervisory officers in Ontario. Data collected from interviews as well as from P/PM 150 related content on the Ontario Ministry of Education, school board, and school websites/social media pages, were examined through a pragmatic lens. Thematic coding (using NVivo 10) was employed to analyze the interview data, whereas document and content analyses were used to examine the online content. A second coder analyzed a sample of websites and interview transcripts to ensure inter-rater reliability. Upon examining the interview transcripts, seven main themes emerged: 1) supervisory officer roles; 2) the importance of communication; 3) monitoring strategies; 4) P/PM 150 barriers and facilitators; 5) the policy's impact on pedagogy; 6) the P/PM 150 mindset; and 7) recommendations for promising practices. When analyzing the Ministry, school board, and individual school websites and social media pages, much of the content pertained to 1) the policy's subject matter (i.e., its layout, the policy's associated resources, etc.); 2) its administrative procedures; 3) the procedures' and P/PM 150's review processes; 4) the policy's implementation process (e.g., training, monitoring, etc.); 5) promoting P/PM 150; and 6) the policy's outcomes (e.g., nutrition education and partnerships). These findings may be of potential interest to the Government of Ontario (Ministry of Education), school boards, teachers, and policy designers in other sectors, such as health.

No description available.

Cette étude examine les élaborations de politique fiscale en se concentrant sur un cas particulier: celui du Venezuela sur la période 2000-2010. La sélection de ce cas particulier permet d’intégrer deux aspects marquants, connus pour avoir des effets importants sur la performance rentière: un saisissant choc pétrolier de 2004 à 2008 et l’introduction d’un nouveau régime politique de type semi-autoritaire. Au cours de la première décennie du 21ème siècle, le régime politique du Venezuela a substantiellement été transformé. Les modes de gouvernance du pays et précisément ceux du secteur pétrolier ont connu une profonde mutation. L’institution fiscale du Venezuela changea considérablement dans les années 2000 avec une nouvelle conception du management des ressources politiques. Le paradigme ‘semer le pétrole’ fut remplacé par un modèle de distribution directe et centralisé des rentes pétrolières. Grâce à un gouvernement récemment élu et l’adoption d’une nouvelle constitution en 1999, une série de changements substantiels débuta, amorçant de véritables métamorphoses institutionnelles et de nouvelles dynamiques au sein des sphères politiques, économiques et sociales. Plusieurs réformes légales ont été progressivement introduites pour modifier les normes du système de Management des Finances Publiques (PFM) ainsi que les normes budgétaires, générant ainsi de nouvelles dynamiques dans l’aménagement des dépenses publiques, dans les modèles d’allocation de rente, et dans l’ensemble de la gestion des ressources. Ces mesures créant de nouvelles élaborations fiscales, et plus important encore, une nouvelle architecture de finances publiques. / This study examines fiscal policy designs by focusing on one particular case: Venezuela during the period 2000-2010. The selection of this particular case of study allows to integrate two prominent aspects known to have important effects on rentier performance: a striking oil boom from 2004-2008 and the introduction of a new political regime. During the first decade of the 21st century, the political regime of Venezuela was substantially transformed modifying the overarching governance modes of the country and more specifically, those of the oil sector, the most important sector of the country’s economy. The fiscal institution of Venezuela considerably changed in the 2000s with a new conception over the management of oil rents. The ‘sowing the oil’ paradigm was displaced by a model of direct distribution of oil rents through a centralized spending system. With a newly elected government and the enactment of a new Constitution in 1999, a series of substantial changes were begun, introducing institutional makeovers and new dynamics across political, economic and social spheres. These multiple institutional rearrangements drew a dividing line from previous time periods, progressively developing a discernible preference for centralizing policy-making decisions, circumventing institutional structures and restructuring policy arrangements to make them compatible with the newly established governance modes. In this sense, the assessment of Public Financial Management (PFM) system adjustments in the light of controlling expanding resource rents can potentially contribute to the study of fiscal implementation distortions in naturally endowed economies in particular.

<p>Policies of tenure mix have been widely adopted in many industrialized nations and are often justified as a means of attenuating the detrimental effects of concentrated urban poverty. In this thesis, the case of Toronto’s Regent Park community is examined. It is the first large-scale mixed tenure redevelopment of a publicly subsidized housing community in Canada. Using a series of 24 semi-structured qualitative interviews with residents from both tenures, I examine their experience of living in a mixed tenure community and gauge their support for policies of tenure mix more generally. Broader determinants of residential satisfaction in the neighbourhood are also examined. The redeveloped Regent Park is considered to be a relatively safe, convivial, well-serviced, well-situated, and aesthetically pleasing neighbourhood by individuals from both tenures. Further, participants from both tenures expressed support for the ostensible goals of the redevelopment. Resident experiences diverge significantly by tenure with regard to their satisfaction with the management and maintenance of their buildings. Particularly, individuals in the public buildings expressed considerable displeasure with how their buildings were managed and experienced serious physical difficulties that, in some cases, had adverse effects on their health and wellbeing. I find that tenure mix enjoys considerable support from residents of both tenures, with especially strong support evinced by a subset of condominium residents. To assess the efficacy of tenure mix, I employ a conceptual framework provided by Joseph (2006) and find some evidence that the redevelopment has strengthened the social capital of publicly-subsidized tenants. For most residents, more proximal concerns take precedence over the mixed nature of the community.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)